EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren has taken a pay cut to match his female predecessor

By Abigail Malbon| 2 years ago

The airline boss will sacrifice $59,000 of his annual salary

The new male CEO of British airline easyJet has taken a pay cut to match the salary of the woman in the role before him, Carolyn McCall.

Johan Lundgren, who stepped into the role in December 2017, has chopped his salary by £34,000 - $AUD 59,000 - in order to allow “equal opportunities” for the budget airline company.

Lundgren was reportedly given a £740,000 ($AUD 1.29m) salary when he joined the company, while McCall was believed to be earning £706,000 ($AUD 1.23m) when she left her role in November 2017.

The former deputy chief of travel group Tui released a statement explaining the decision.

“At easyJet we are absolutely committed to giving equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men,” he explained. “I want that to apply to everybody at easyJet and to show my personal commitment I have asked the board to reduce my pay to match that of Carolyn’s when she was at easyJet.”

The current pay gap in easyJet is notoriously high, with a difference of male pay to female at 51.7 percent. However, the company insists that this is not because of unequal gender pay - rather, 94% of the company’s pilots are male, and earn more than cabin crew and other employees.

EasyJet says they are recruiting more female pilots, and hope that by 2020 20 percent will be women.

Last year they recruited 49 - 13 percent of the total hired.

Lundgren said: “I also want to affirm my own commitment to address the gender imbalance in our pilot community which drives our overall gender pay gap. I want us not just to hit our target that 20% of our new pilots should be female by 2020 but to go further than this in the future.”

McCall left EasyJet in November 2017. Image: Getty

McCall, meanwhile, began a new role at UK TV station ITV this month. However, she will be earning $71,000 less than the man in the role before her.

ITV said that performance reviews mean her overall earnings potential over a three to five-year period was greater than that of her predecessor.

McCall is one of only eight female chief executives of a FTSE 100 company.